Leporello

Dear Pietro, this object is clearly a picture frame that is supposed to give the appearance of being made from a genuine tsuba. I agree with Dale that this piece only looks like a tsuba. The poor workmanship and the lack of seppadai suggest a fake, which was made for the western market to satisfy the hunger for Japanese antiques around the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century (as wonderful described by Geraint!). For comparison here are some pictures of another ´picture frame tsuba´ out of my own collection, which unfortunately was made from a nice Choshu tsuba. Sorry for the bad picture quality. I´ll do better when this one enters the for sale section All the best, Thomas

Hello Anthony, I remember having sold a very unusual octagonal shaped ´Bamen Tsunemasa´ in 2016 to a NMB member ... have a look at #11 in my post ´Downsizing #5´ Tom

#9 no longer for sale

# 7: 120€ # 9: 200€

price reduction # 12: 220€ # 13: 140€ # 15: 275€ # 17: 850€

# 8 sold

Price reduction: # 7: 120€ # 8: 160€ # 9: 200€

#16 sold

Seems that I was thinking too long about that piece. Congrats to the buyer!

To me this is neither Higo, nor Akasaka, but a later Tosa Myochin piece because of the colour, the fine and smooth surface, the form of the seppa dai and the elegant and precise workmanship ... what do I know!

price reduction # 12: 240€ # 13: 160€ # 15: 300€ # 16: 120€ # 17: 900€

#14 sold

Price reduction: # 7: 130€ # 8: 175€ # 9: 220€

Maybe I´m wrong, but ... wasn´t this koshirae (or even the whole package) part of Frederic Galland´s ´Edoantiques´ long time ago?